MLG General Rules and Regulations

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Super Smash Brothers Melee

General Rules and Regulations:
1. During Championship Bracket competitions, all players must register a 1-4 digit tag. If they wish to wear a tag during the game they must use their registered tag, otherwise they may not use one.
2. During scheduled warm-up periods the winner stays and the loser must get up.
3. If a player or team doesn't show up on time for their match, they will be given a 5 minute grace period before it will go down as a forfeit.
4. In the case of a GameCube/TV malfunction, the game will be restarted from the beginning, no matter what time it crashed.
5. A staff member will record each game's results so no reporting of scores by players is necessary.
6. All decisions made by tournament officials are final.
7. Players must conduct themselves in a reasonable manner. Permanent ejection of a player from the tournament is at the staff's discretion.
8. Spectators may not communicate with a player while he or she is competing. Breaking this rule will result in a warning. A second violation will result in ejection of the spectator and forfeit of the game.
9. Any intentional forfeiting or conspiring to manipulate the rankings/brackets will result in ejection and possible suspension from future tournaments.
10. Any other sign of cheating will also result in forfeit of the game.
11. Players must report to their station immediately after their match is announced. If after 5 minutes, a player/team has not reported to their station they will forfeit the match.


Controllers:
1. You are responsible for bringing your own controller.
2. Controller mods of ANY kind (short-hop mod, L-trigger mod, etc), except for cosmetic changes (paint job, different colored plastic), are banned. Tournament staff may randomly inspect any controller at their discretion. If you are caught using a banned controller you will be immediately disqualified from the tournament.
3. Turbo or programmed buttons of any kind are banned. You may use third party controllers or pads that have these features, but if you are suspected of using the banned features you will not be allowed to use that controller any longer.


Open Competitions:
1. The Open Singles competition will start with Pool Play. All players with rank points will be separated into the pools. All remaining players will be randomly separated into the pools. The top 2 players from each pool will advance to the Championship Singles bracket.
2. The Open Doubles competition will consist of Pool Play. All teams with rank points will be separated into the pools. All remaining teams will be randomly separated into the pools. The top 2 players from each pool will advance to the Championship Doubles bracket.
3. Each player/team will play 2 games against all other players/teams in their pool. Scores will be recorded and used to rank players for the Elimination Bracket. Any ties for advancing positions will be broken by a single tiebreaker game.
4. For each game of a pool play match, the stage will be selected at random from the list of Random Select stages. Each player can eliminate 1 stage from the list of possibilities.
5. Lives will be set at 4 stock with an 8 minute time limit.
6. Ties will be broken by stock left and then by percentage of health. Sudden death will be played if both the stock and percentage are tied at the end of the time limit.
7. Items will be turned off.


Championship Competitions:
1. The first two rounds of the Championship Singles and Doubles brackets will be best of 3 games series, double elimination brackets. All rounds thereafter will be best of 5 game series.
2. Players will be seeded for the bracket based first on their pool play performance. Ties will be their pool bracket seed.
3. Lives will be set at 4 stock with an 8 minute time limit.
4. Ties will be broken by stock left and then by percentage of health. Sudden death will be played if both the stock and percentage are tied at the end of the time limit.
5. Items will be turned off.


Stage & Character Selection:
1. The higher seed has first choice for their seat(s) and controller port(s). The higher seeded team has first choice for their team color. Teams must sit together on one side or the other. If players/teams meet for a 2nd time in the Championship Bracket, the winner of the 1st series will have seat and controller choice.
2. The stage for Game 1 will be selected at random unless both players/teams can agree on one.
3. Singles random select stages: Final Destination, Battlefield, Yoshi's Story, Fountain of Dreams, Dreamland 64 & Pokemon Stadium
4. Doubles random select stages: Final Destination, Battlefield, Yoshi's Story, Rainbow Cruise, Dreamland 64 & Pokemon Stadium, DK64
5. Stages not listed on the random select list that are not banned are open for counter picks by the losing player.
6. Stages banned for Singles Only: Great Bay and Mushroom Kingdom 2
7. Stages banned for Doubles Only: Fountain of Dreams and Mute City
8. Stages banned for Singles & Doubles: Yoshi?s Island (Pipes), Fourside, Hyrule Temple, Flatzone, Brinstar Depths, Icicle Mountain, Big Blue, Mushroom Kingdom 1, Venom, Yoshi's Island 64, Peach?s Castle, and Kongo Jungle, Onett.
9. No stage may be used twice in a Best of 3 or Best of 5 Series. The random select stages are the only stages that may be used more than once in a best of 11 series.
10. After characters and the first stage has been chosen randomly during the opening (non damage phase) either team my elect to not play that stage and redo the random. Each team/player is allowed one Non-Random stage knock-off. The lower seeded team uses theirs first.
11. After each game of a series, the player who lost the previous game may choose the stage for the next game or elect for it to be chosen randomly. After the stage has been selected, the winner of the previous game may change characters. After the winner has chosen their character, the loser of the previous game may change characters.
12. For the first game of a series, a player may call for a double-blind pick. This means that all participating players must tell a judge the character they will use for that game. Each player is required to use that character in the game.
13. If players/teams meet for a 2nd time in the Championship Bracket, their series will expand to a best of 11, include the previous series, and pick up where that series left off. For example, if Player A beat Player B 3 games to 0 in the Winners Bracket, the Best of 11 will resume with Game 4 and Player leading 3 games to 0. The loser of the 1st series will choose the stage for the 1st game of the 2nd series and players may call for a double-blind pick before any game throughout the best of 11.
14. If the players/teams meeting in the Championship Match have not yet faced each other in a series and the team coming from the Losers Bracket wins first series, another series must be played to break the tie since both players/teams would only have one series loss.


Other Rules & Special Issues:
1. Any unnecessary pausing of the game will result in a forfeit of that single game.
2. Glitches used to stop your opponent from controlling their character or indefinitely freezing them (Mewtwo's Soul Stunner, the Ice Climber freeze glitch), or any glitch or trick that freezes the game or makes it unable to be finished are banned and will result in the immediate forfeit of the entire match.
3. Tactics such as Peach's Wallbombing and Jiggly's Rising Pound are allowed as methods of recovery or to maneuver around the stage. Using them (or any similar tactics) to excessively stall a match, such as dropping below levels intentionally and stalling underneath, is banned. If by using one of these tactics, you have put your character in a place to lose a stock by ending the tactic, a judge may force you to stop and lose a life and continue the match short a stock.
4. Players/teams may designate a coach when they register for a competition, however, this coach may not be registered as a player for either a Singles or Doubles competition. Coaches may not instruct players during games, but may consult with players for a maximum of 1 minute between games. Once the stage for the next game has been selected, players may not talk to their coach.
5. For Doubles matches, Team Attack is ON
6. For Doubles matches, life stealing is allowed

Banned Stages: It doesn’t matter what tournaments you’re at, Hyrule Temple and Yoshi 64 should always be BANNED. Aside from that, here is a list (MLG) of banned stages.
• Fourside
• Brinstar Depths
• Icicle Mountain
• Termina

Dave’s Stupid Rule (DSR): No one stage may be played twice during a set.

Double Blind Character Pick: This can happen a lot of ways, tell your character to a judge, or write it on paper, etc. This is to eliminate anyone picking there character based on the character you choose.

Double Elimination (Eli): You have to lose two sets to be knocked out of a tournament, which is more accurate then single elimination, but still has its flaws. This does mean that you can lose once and still be able to get first. Most tournaments are run using this format.

Items: While most tournaments run with items off, occasionally some put them on. When they do so, it is usually on LOW. Common items (MLG) that are turned off are : Hearts, Tomatoes, Stars, Hammers, Cloaking Devices, Metal Boxes, Red Koopa Shells, Bob-ombs, Pokeballs, Party Balls, and Mushrooms.

Life Stealing: In a team tournament, life stealing is almost always allowed.

Match: A match is one game, which is based on stock (with time limit). To decide the winner of a match in the event times runs out, first you check stock leads, then % leads, then if it’s still tied you play out sudden death.

Set: A set is a number of matches. To be declared a winner, you usually need to win a set, which is commonly 2/3. So you will have to win 2 matches to win the set. However for semifinals-finals, many tournaments change it to best 3/5, or even more.

Stages - General: Many tournaments limit stages. This is because some stages are more fair than others. The following are the stages allowed and banned for MLG.

Stages - Random Select: These stages are used at the start of certain matches when a stage cannot be agreed upon by the participants and advanced slob picks are not yet applicable.

•Special Stages: Final Destination
•Special Stages: Battlefield
•Yoshi's Island: Yoshi's Story
•Dream Land: Fountain of Dreams
•Past Stages: Dream Land
•Kanto: Pokémon Stadium

Stages - Counterpicking: These stages are ones not included in the random select, but may still be chosen for counterpicking purposes. Random select stages are also available for counterpicking.

Stages - Banned: Certain stages are banned from competition because of unique scenarios they may create with certain characters. For example, on Hyrule Temple, Fox may laser a player at the beginning of the match and spend the remaining 8 minutes running (since ties are broken by percentages). This strategy cannot be stopped except by only a few other character (e.g. Fox/Falcon). The other stages have similar problems or issues with camping/lag.

•Yoshi's Island: Yoshi's Island
•Eagleland: Fourside
•Hyrule: Temple
•Superflat World: Flat Zone
•Planet Zebes: Brinstar Depths
•Infinite Glacier: Icicle Mountain
•F-Zero Grand Prix: Big Blue
•Mushroom: Kingdom I
•Lylat System: Venom
•Past Stages: Yoshi's Island

Stage Knockout: This is a new thing, however it pretty much eliminates the point of Advanced Slob Picks, which is a reason many tournaments don’t do this. Each player can select stages that CANNOT be played, at all, during a set, depending on the tournament each player could pick 1 stage, or 2, or even more.

Swiss Format: This is more complicated to set up then a Double Eli tournament, but the results are more accurate. I won’t bore anyone with the details, but you play a lot of matches (not sets) and then your seeded based on win/lose and # of kills. Things are then played out in Eli format (single or double).

Team Attack (TA) ON/OFF: Team attack is usually on to make spamming less of a problem, however some tournaments play with it off, so check to see what the rules are before you enter/pick your characters.

Time: Time is a problem for many, if not all, tournaments. Since things need to run on a schedule matches are usually based on stock, as well as time. The range for times varies from tournament to tournament, but generally a minute and a half -2 minutes is reasonable for each stock. So in a 4 stock tournament, 6-8 minutes is okay.

Random Select: The first match in a set is usually random, or agreed upon by the players.